Clayton to chair IOM board focused on public health
Ellen Wright Clayton, M.D., J.D.
The three-year appointment is effective immediately.
The board is broadly concerned with promoting the public health — physical, mental and social — particularly through population-based interventions.
The board examines and develops strategies for disease prevention, taking into account the multiple factors affecting health — genetic endowment, social and environmental conditions and individual behaviors including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diet and exercise.
The board addresses the science base for such interventions, the public health infrastructure and the education and supply of health professionals necessary for carrying them out.
The board has an ongoing program of studies on public health infrastructure, women’s and children’s health, immunization, AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases, and environmental and occupational health.
As chair, Clayton will be responsible for the board’s work in three priority areas covering both preventive services and public health functions: re-examining public health capacities and the responsibilities to meet public health functions; population-based interventions to promote healthful behavior; and occupational and environmental health issues.
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies is an independent, non-profit organization that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public.
Established in 1970, the IOM is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, which was chartered under President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.